Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1887-04-01
FOnETELLIHG EARTHQUAKES.
PROP. MCGEE SAYS THERE ARE NO
MEANS OF PREDICTING WITHIN
THOUSANDS OF YEARS.
From the Washington star.l

Prof. w. J. MCGEE, of the Geo.
logical Survey, in his lecture on
"The Charleston Earthquake" at
the National Museum Wednesday
evening, said, in answer to the
question, "Csn earthquakes be pre-
dlcted Z" ayes. Two or three
years ago one of the most eminent
of living geologists ventured the
prediction that Salt Lake City will
be wrecked by an earthquake ana
logous in cause, character and effect
of that of Owens Valley. The
earthquake has not yet come; this
generation may not sec it; centu.
ries may roll by and the City of
Saints become purified by other
means before the catastrophe
comes but come 1t must, sooner or
later. Earthquakes will visit again
and again the whole of our land
Prof. lockwood, of Princeton, has
for some years past been recording
from so to 100 American earth.
quakes each year. Scarcely week
goes by without seismic disturb
ance somewhere in our country,
and we can predict the recurrence
of earthquakes in the future as
surely as we can foretell the rise Of
to.morrow's sun. Nearly all of
these are small, but now and then
a great one comes and If, as seems
evident, the displacement and the
earthquake go together, as Gilbert
assumed IN his prophecy concern.
ing Salt Lake City, then the East
ern United States are in danger,
for displacement is now in progress
at a rate so astonishingly rapid as
to occasion surprise that earth.
quakes are not more frequent, and,
In curious and unconscious defiance
of the inevitable, the cities Of Pc
tersburg, Richmond, Fredericks-
burg, Washington, Baltimore, Port
Deposit, Wilmington, Philsdel.
phia, Trenton, and New York have
bean located on the very line of
displacement. Ir the smile can be
borrowed without sscrilege unto
the geologlst a thousand years are
as a day. The grand Washington
monument, stateliest of artificial
structures, will indeed be Overturn-
ed by the earthquake II 1t does not
sooner yield to the tooth of time
The lofty tenements of New York
will be crumbled, and the hearts oi
the nation will bleed for her chill
dren, unless the social revolution
whose mutterings are even now
heard in the land, the cyclone, Ol
the rising of the sea, or contiagra
tion have sooner done their work
Even the infrequent lightning vii
have slain it's thousands before tb'
dread catastrophe comes. "But
word must be said OF the belated
astrologer, of the man born three
centuries too late; Of the cranl
who predicts war, pestilence, food
famine, earthquake, and points t
the comet or conjunction of tn
planets in proof Of his prophecy
There are no reliable means OF pre-
dieting within hundreds of years
nay, thousands and tens of thou
sands of years, when the grea
earthquake will occur; and il an,
, one seeks to make more de6nit
predictions by means of the sign
in the heavens he is a charlatan
, the truth Is not in him, and hi
words are as idle az the passinI
breeze Prof. NcGee held that n
house should be erected, even /
Washington or in any other cas-
ern city, without considering tn
earthquake and fire as common
sources Of danger.